


With This Ring

by sassy_cissa



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Homophobia, M/M, drunk!Ron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 07:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8880814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassy_cissa/pseuds/sassy_cissa
Summary: Harry finds something in the snow and it turns his world around.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unadulteratedstorycollector](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unadulteratedstorycollector/gifts).



> My darling O, without you this would be but a bunch of words on paper. You are an amazing beta. ustorycollector, I hope you enjoy it. Happy Holidays!!

Harry stepped with exaggerated care across the snowy ground. He’d had several pints at the Leaky with Ron, and now they were trying to make their way to the Apparition point. 

“Do you honestly think you’re sober enough to Apparate without splinching yourself?” He asked his friend.

“I’m fine.” Ron waved his hand expansively and smacked Harry hard in the back of the head. He staggered a few steps. 

“Ow.” He rubbed the spot. 

“Oh, sorry there Mate.” Ron rubbed the back of Harry’s head, entirely too hard, so he ducked away from Ron's touch.

“I’m going to take you home,” Harry said. “If you splinch yourself, Hermione will never forgive me.” He slipped his arm around Ron’s waist, trying to steady him when Harry wasn’t that steady himself. They’d walked a few more steps, weaving dangerously, when Harry saw something glinting, nearly buried in the snow. 

He bent and nearly landed on his head, reaching out at the last moment to steady himself on a drainpipe on the nearby building. He staggered a step, grabbed the pipe harder, bending at his waist to stare at what was a small circular piece of gleaming metal. He picked it up in his gloved hand and blew some of the snow off of it. He was impaired enough that it took him a moment to realize it was a ring, but moments later he saw the intricate ‘M’ engraved on the face. 

“Hey, I recognize this,” he said after a moment. 

“Whatziz it?” Ron slurred, leaning closer.

“It’s a ring. In fact, it’s Malfoy’s ring.”

“What?” Ron reared back so far he almost landed on his arse. “Why do you have Malfoy’s ring?”

“I just found it here in the snow, you numpty.” Harry stared at the ring. “I’ve never seen his hand without it. What could it be doing here?”

“Dunno,” Ron said. “But I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Not on me you aren’t.” Harry pushed him away, and Ron staggered a few steps further away. 

Harry stared at the ring in his hand, ignoring the sounds of Ron retching. What was Malfoy’s signet ring doing in the snow in an alley behind the Leaky? He slipped it into his pocket as Ron came back to him, green around the gills but steadier on his feet. Harry slipped his arm around his waist, got them as far as the Apparition point, and they disappeared with a pop.

******

Harry arrived in Wiltshire with a loud pop, wincing as the sound faded away. He looked around at the fairly barren landscape, and began to walk up the one paved road. 

When he’d arrived at Ron and Hermione’s the night before, once she’d nagged Ron off to bed, he'd shown Hermione the signet ring he’d found.

“Where was it?” she asked, turning it in her hand.

“On the ground, like someone had just… tossed it away.”

“Hmm.” Hermione looked up at him. “This is a very valuable piece of jewelry, Harry. I can’t imagine Malfoy just threw it away. And honestly, Harry. This could only happen to you.”

Harry was sitting on the edge of their couch, removing his shoes. He looked up at her with a frown. “What does that mean?”

“Well, think about it. You’re drunk, and you still manage to see a ring shining in the snow. And then, the ring turns out to belong to Malfoy, of all people.”

“I didn’t know it was his when I picked it up.”

“Well, no. But it obviously is.”

Harry nodded with a sigh. “I know. I’ve never seen him without it.”

“That’s because he’s the Malfoy heir. Most of the old families have a ring like that. It goes from father to son, generation after generation.” She turned it over and over in her hand, and Harry watched it gleaming in the low light. “I can’t identify this metal, but I’m certain this stone is a diamond.” She looked down at him. “I think you need to return it.”

“To Malfoy?” Harry frowned. “Can’t I just… Owl it to him?”

She gave him one of her ‘Hermione’ looks. He sighed heavily. 

“Fine.”

So here he was, hung over on an early Saturday morning, trudging down a country road to Malfoy Manor. He was still a cadet in the Auror Academy, but he was allowed to look into the criminal logs for the addresses of convicted felons. Lucius Malfoy was serving time in Azkaban, therefore the location of the Manor was part of the record. Harry felt it when he crossed through the wards that hid the Manor from Muggles, and saw the great house materialize in front of him. A shiver passed over his shoulders. The last time he’d been here had been a night that contributed to his ongoing war-inspired nightmares. Listening to Hermione scream while he’d been unable to help her had been one of the worst moments of his life. 

The large black gate blocked him from the Manor house itself, and Harry paused if front of it, trying to figure out how to get around it. There was a gargoyle face in the middle of the gate, and to Harry’s astonishment it opened its eyes. 

“What is your business?” it asked in a deep, sonorous voice. 

Harry blinked. “Uhm, I need to return something.”

“To whom?” 

“To Draco. Malfoy.”

“One moment, if you please.” Its eyes closed. It took perhaps thirty seconds, and then the eyes opened again. “He will see you.”

The gate swung open without a sound, and Harry stared at it before passing through it. It was another hundred yards before he reached the massive doors to the house, and as he did one of them swung open and Draco stepped into the opening.

“What do you want?” He crossed his arms over his chest, and his gray eyes were glacial. 

“I was going to return something to you, but if you’re going to be an arse about it…” He had the ring in an inside pocket. He also had Malfoy’s wand with him. He hoped, since he was able to mend his own wand with the Elder wand, that the Hawthorne would return its allegiance to Draco. 

He noticed, as they stared at one another, that Draco looked…really bad. He’d looked bad at the end of the war, but this was different. Oh, his hair was still bright and he was dressed impeccably but he looked weary. And sad. Even though his eyes were hard, his mouth was pulled down at the corners in something other than irritation. 

Finally, Draco uncrossed his arms. “What is it?”

“Well, first of all --” Harry reached into his sleeve and withdrew the Hawthorne wand. When Draco saw it pleasure washed his features momentarily. He reached for it, and his hand was trembling as he took it back from Harry. He pulled it into his chest, almost as if to embrace it, and looked up into Harry’s face. 

“Thank you,” he said softly. “I’ve… really missed it.”

Harry knew how he’d felt when he’d discovered his wand was broken. It was like trying to do magic with an artificial limb.

“You’re welcome.” Harry reached into his pocket for the ring, now warmed by his body heat. “There’s this, too.”

He held out the ring, expecting Draco to take it. He didn’t. He stared at it in horror.

“Where did you get that?”

“I found it, in the snow in Diagon Alley,” Harry said, confounded by Draco’s reaction. “It is yours, isn’t it?”

“It isn’t mine,” Draco spat. 

Harry looked down at it, then back into his eyes. “Malfoy, I’ve seen this ring on your hand from the moment you turned sixteen. I recognize it. It’s yours.”

“It was mine.” Draco slipped the wand into his sleeve. “As of yesterday, I’m no longer the Malfoy heir. Therefore, it isn’t mine.”

“I don’t understand.” Harry frowned. “You’re your father’s son.”

“Not according to him.” Draco blinked quickly. “Just, do what you want with it. Sell it. Throw it in the sewer. I don’t care.”

Draco started to turn away, and Harry stepped forward and grabbed his arm. Draco turned back, looking into Harry’s face in alarm. Harry removed his hand.

“Merlin, Malfoy. I’d never hurt you. Don’t you know that by now? I fucking flew you out of the fire. Literally.”

Draco subsided slightly, then leaned back against the door with a heavy sigh. 

“My father has disowned me.”

Harry stared at him in shock. “He what?”

“He disowned me. Threw me out of the family.”

Harry recalled the burned spots on the Black tapestry, and how hurt Sirius had been even years later, even though he tried to hide it.

“Why?”

Draco let his head fall back against the heavy oak door. “He doesn’t want a faggot as an heir, okay? That’s why.”

Harry stared at him in shock. “How could he even find that out? Isn’t he in Azkaban?”

Draco looked at him, startled. “You aren’t surprised?”

“No, Malfoy. I’m not surprised. Just tell me; how did he even find out?”

“They can get owls in Azkaban. Especially when it’s something that might upset them. The new management may not suck out their souls, but they enjoy seeing their charges unhappy. Someone I… knew in school tried to bribe him. Instead of paying him off, father decided to toss me out of the lineage instead. He called me to Azkaban in order to do it. When I got off the boat when I got back, I threw the ring away. He doesn’t want me? Then I don’t want or need that.”

Harry studied his face for several long, drawn out seconds. 

“You’re father is an arse,” Harry said finally. Draco barked out a startled laugh. “Isn’t he in Azkaban for the rest of his life?”

Draco nodded, his mouth tight.

“Does your mother know what he said?”

Draco hesitated, then shook his head. 

“Do you think she’d agree with him?”

“Why do you care?” Draco asked, looking truly confused by it.

“I never knew my father,” Harry said finally. “At least, not that I remember. But I like to think he wouldn’t throw me out of my family because of something I can’t change.”

Draco stared at him in startled surprise. “I… didn’t know that about you.”

Harry gave a ragged laugh. “I didn’t exactly advertise. I don’t think I knew myself until after Hogwarts. I had other things on my mind.”

Draco hesitated, then nodded. “So you did.” He took a deep breath. “I haven’t told my mother yet, what father said.”

“Isn’t she in charge of all things Malfoy now that Lucius is in prison?”

Draco shrugged. “The financial stuff, yeah.”

“Did your wards let you in, when you got back last night?”

A startled expression passed over Draco’s face. “Why, yes. Yes they did. How did you know…”

“I sensed the wards when I arrived. They didn’t let me in.”

“So…”

“So your father acting an arse didn’t change the fact that you are the Malfoy heir.” Harry held out the ring. “Put it back on. Your hand looks naked without it.”

Hesitantly, Draco reached out and took the ring from Harry’s outstretched hand. Slowly, he slipped it onto his finger. 

“Now.” Harry slipped his hands into his pockets. “Do you want me to go with you when you tell your mother what your father tried to do?”

Malfoy looked startled. “Why would you do that?”

Harry shrugged. “Because what he said was shite. And because I have a life debt to pay. Maybe this is how I pay it back, by reminding her that in the midst of chaos, she lied to Voldemort because her only concern was you.”

Draco stared at him, his eyes wide, his mouth soft. He was so beautiful, Harry thought. He always had been. Perhaps that understanding should have clued him in about himself sooner.

“You’d go with me to talk to her?”

“I said I would.”

Draco opened the door further, and in unspoken understanding, Harry stepped into the space. 

As they walked through the cavernous entry hall, their steps echoing on the marble floor, Draco looked over at him. “You never did tell me how you knew I was gay,” he said.

Harry smiled slightly. “I noticed you checking out my package in fifth year. I gather straight blokes don’t do that.”

Red rushed into Malfoy’s cheeks.

“Don’t worry about it,” Harry said. “I was checking out your arse the same year, and I gather straight blokes don’t do that, either.”

Draco sputtered out a surprised laugh. “Not so much, no.”

Draco gave him a slightly shy smile, and Harry felt a rush of anticipation, and hope. Maybe returning that ring was the beginning of something else, for both of them.


End file.
